A Brief History of Mudeford Nets.
| Mudeford netsmen closing the net |
It's believed the monks from the monastery at Christchurch began the use of seine nets at Mudeford to catch the salmon and seatrout entering the Rivers Avon and Stour. Both rivers enter the harbour just south of Christchurch Priory and have a single channel at the Mudeford Run affording access to the sea. The routine of the nets men as you see it today is much as it has been practiced for hundreds of year's, tide and time still determine how and when. In today's rapidly changing high tech society the running out of the net by the nets men, working in harmony with natures clock appears reassuringly enduring.
Unfortunately the enduring quality of the netting today is not all it may appear. The existence of the inshore fishermen of Christchurch Harbour is threaten in common with the destiny of fishermen up and down the length of the country.
Netting forms one crucial element of the fishermens way of life, lobster, sole, bass cuttlefish each have a season and each element contributes to the whole, remove one and the over-dependence on the remaining parts put the lifestyle at risk. Recent years have seen tourists requiring fishing trips bring a much needed further element to supplement the income. Many of the visitors to Mudeford come to see and experience the picturesque link to less complicated time netting provides. What many people fail to realise is that netting does not only take place on warm, sunny evenings but also come rain or shine, day and night all available tides are worked. Fewer tides these days than in years gone by as in an effort to conserve the salmon the season has been dramatically shortened.
| Netsman Tony Stride and WSRT chairman Brian Marshall releasing the 5ooth salmon to be bought back at Mudeford |
The last ten years have seen nets men and conservationists working hand in hand endeavouring to preserve the salmon and safeguard both the salmon as a distinct Avon species and the fishermen's way of life. A local conservation group, the Wessex Salmon and Rivers Trust with the help of sponsors such as Tesco, instigated the scheme to compensate the nets men for the release and the careful handling of the netted salmon. Salmon are no longer killed but are released back into the river to reach the gravel spawning grounds high up the river. The same areas of gravel these fish left several years earlier to travel to the west of Greenland high in the cold north Atlantic for the rich feeding. Salmon released on warm June and July days at Mudeford remain, without feeding, hidden in the river until the depths of winter. Very often between Christmas and the turn of the year amidst freezing snow and ice, their frantic splashing and chasing over the shallows begins the vital cycle once again. When the WSRT hatchery scheme was running it was from these net caught fish that the broodstock were taken and held awaiting stripping in the hatchery in December.
| Then Chairman of the Mudeford Fishermens Association Mr Mike Parker releasing a hatchery kelt originally captured at Mudeford six months earlier |